So Far to Go

So Far to Go

By David R. Corder

Associate Editor

In preparation for its second annual diversity symposium, the Florida Bar sent out invitations to 52 managing partners at some of the state's top law firms. Program organizers were disheartened at the response.

Barbara Pariente, chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, seized on that disappointment to make a point while she spoke at the April 22 event at the Stetson University College of Law's Tampa campus. This event focused on ways law firms can profit by hiring lawyers of different color and those with disabilities.

Pariente asked the managing partners in the audience to raise their hands. Cesar Alvarez, a guest panelist, did. He's the CEO of Miami's Greenberg Traurig PA, one of the nation's largest law firms. So did guest panelist Rhea Law, president and CEO of Tampa's Fowler White Boggs Banker PA. Ramon Abadin, managing partner of Miami's Abadin Jaramillo Cook & Heffernan and the diversity symposium committee's chairman, raised his hand, too.

Then Pariente asked all managing partners not participating as panelists or as symposium committee members to raise their hands. Not one did. The response from an audience of judges, lawyers and academics echoed her disappointment.

Such inattentiveness to diversity issues is one of the reasons why Pariente has spearheaded a push during her term as chief justice to increase awareness about minority issues in the state's legal profession. It's why she convened the Supreme Court Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity, which targets the elimination of inappropriate bias from the state's judicial system.

"We have a long, long, long way to go," Pariente lamented as she spoke about the personal challenges in her life as a Jewish female legal professional.

The lack of diversity accounts for why Tallahassee attorney Kelly Overstreet Johnson has put so much effort into diversity during her term as the bar's volunteer president. She explained why earlier this year in a message she sent to the state's 76,120 licensed lawyers.

"We should all embrace diversity in its broadest sense and recognize its true value to the bar and the world at large," she said. "It is in our differences that we have strength because each person's point of view is unique. You and I may hear the exact same message, but assign two totally different meanings.

"The sharing of those varied perceptions in a forum that has the ability to lend shape to the future of the legal profession will enrich not only our profession, but also each of us personally," she added. "Nonetheless, these words mean nothing if there are no accompanying actions to accomplish these goals. We must foster an environment that includes rather than excludes lawyers in our bar."